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tion, and wondered how the air was drawn into the spoke and what mechanism
forced it back out again. She also wondered why the process had to be so vi
olent. Calvin's watch said it had been seventeen days since the last Lament
. she hoped it would be at least as long until the next.
As before, the cold did not last more than six or seven hours, and the snow
did not stick to the ground. They weathered it better this time, finding tha t
the blimpsilk clothes were more protective than they looked, working as wi
ndbreakers.
The thirtieth day since their emergence was marked by two things: somethin g
that happened, and something that didn't happen.
The first was their arrival at the confluence of the Clio and the mighty ri
ver Ophion. They were deep in south Hyperion by then, equidistant between t he
central vertical cable and the southern one, both of which now towered o
ver them.
Ophion was blue-green, wider and swifter than the Clio. It swept Titanic int o
its center, and after a time of alertness and soundings with their poles, the
travelers decided it would be safe to stay there. In size and speed, Oph ion
reminded Bill and Cirocco of the Mississippi, but with more vegetation a nd
tall trees along the banks. The land was still jungle, but Ophion was wid e
and deep.
Cirocco was far more concerned with the non-event--- the one she had waited
for as the days ticked by on Calvin's watch. She had been regular as the tid
es for twenty-two years, and it was disturbing to miss a period.
"Did you know it's been thirty days now?" Cirocco asked Gaby that evening.
"
"Has it? I hadn't thought about it." She frowned.
"Yeah. And I'm more than late. I've always been twenty-nine days; sometimes
early by a day, never late."
"You know, I'm late, too." "I thought you were."
"Christ, that just doesn't make sense at all."
"I was wondering what sort of protection you used on Ring- master. Could y ou
have forgotten about it back then?"
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"Not bloody likely. Calvin gave me monthlies."
Cirocco sighed. "I was afraid it'd be something as infallible as that. Me, I
can't take pills; they make me swell up. I used one of those wear-ever diaphr
agms. I had it in when we went under. I didn't really think to look for it un
til ... well, after we joined up with Bill and August and it might already ha
ve been too late." She was hesitant to discuss that part with Gaby. It was no
secret that she and Bill had made love, and also no secret that there had be
en no time or place or privacy for it on Titanic with Gaby always around.
"Anyhow, it's gone. I presume it was eaten by the same thing that ate our h
air. Which makes my skin crawl, by the way,"
Gaby shivered.
"But I thought it could be Bill. Now I don't really think so." She got up an d
went over to Bill, who was sleeping on the ground. She woke him, and waite d
until he looked alert.
"Bill, we're both pregnant."
Bill was not as awake as she had thought. He blinked in surprise, then his b
row furrowed.
"Well don't look at me. Not even for yours. The last time with Gaby was not l
ong after we left Earth. Besides, I've got a valve."
"I wasn't saying anything like that," she soothed. With Gaby, hub? she
thought. She hadn't known about that, and she thought she had been aware of
everything that occurred on Ring- master. "That just makes it mor
e certain that something very strange is going on. Somebody or something is
playing a big joke on us, but I'm not laughing."
Calvin was as good as his word. Two days after Cirocco hailed a passing bl
imp, Whistlestop hovered overhead and a blue flower blossomed with their w
andering surgeon dangling beneath it. August was close behind him. They hi t
the water just off shore.
Cirocco had to admit that Calvin looked good. He was smiling, and there was a
bounce in his step. He greeted everyone and didn't seem to mind having b een
summoned. He wanted to talk about his travels, but Cirocco was too anxi ous to
hear what he thought of the new situation. He turned very serious lo ng before
they had finished telling him about it.
"Have you had a period since we got here?" he asked August. "No, I haven't.
"
"It's been thirty days," Cirocco said. ',is that unusual for you?" From the
way August's eyes widened, Cirocco assumed it was. "When was the last time you
had intercourse with a man?"
"I've never."
"I was afraid you'd say that."
Calvin was quiet for a while, considering it. Then he frowned more deeply.
"What can I say? You all know it's possible for a woman to skip a period for
other reasons. Athletes sometimes skip a whole lot of them, and we're not s
ure why. Stress can do it, emotional or physical. But I think the chances of
it happening to all three of you at the same time are slim."
"I would tend to agree," Cirocco said.
"It could be dietary. There's no way to know. I can tell you that the three o
f you, and ... uh, April, were undergoing some convergence."
"What's that?" Gaby asked.
"It sometimes happens to women who live together, like on a spaceship where
they're in close quarters. Some hormonal signal tends to synchronize their
menstruation. April and August have been in rhythm with each other for a l ong
time, and Cirocco was only a few days off their cycle. Two early period s and
she was in step. Gaby, you were getting erratic, if you recall.,, "I never
paid much attention to it," she said.
"Well, you were. But I can't see what that would have to do with what we have
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here. I only brought it up to point out that strange things happen. It's pos
sible that you all just skipped one."
"It's also possible that we're all knocked up, and I shudder to think who the
fat her is," sirocco said, sourly. .
"That's just flat impossible," Calvin said. "If you're saying that the thing
th at ate us did it to you all ... I can't buy that. There isn't another
animal ev
en on Earth that can impregnate a human. You tell me how this alien creature
di d it."
"I don't know," Cirocco said. "That's why it's alien. But I'm convinced it g [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]